Sensex tanks 418 pts on global growth woes; Nifty below 7,400

Mumbai :Market benchmark Sensex resumed its downward spiral today by nosediving 418 points to close at over 20-month low of 24,062.04, tracking massive sell-off in global indexes on growth worries, while oil again dipped below the USD 28-level.

With this, the index has fallen to the weakest level since since May 16, 2014, the day the new government won a landslide mandate in general elections.

The rupee, meanwhile, breached the 68-mark during intraday against the dollar for the first time since September 4, 2013.

The 30-share Sensex after opening lower at 24,325.77, continued to slide and cracked the 24,000-mark to hit a low of 23,839.76. However, on fag-end buying, the index managed to close above 24,000-level at 24,062.04, still down 417.80 points or 1.71 per cent.

The gauge had gained 291.47 points in the previous session backed up by value-buying in select blue-chips.
The NSE Nifty after cracking the crucial 7,300-mark, settled 125.80 points or 1.69 per cent down at 7,309.30. Intra-day, it shuttled between 7,241.50 and 7,470.90.

Markets fell on persistent foreign fund outflows and sustained selling by retail investors, tracking weak trend in Asian and European indexes and oil prices again falling below USD 28 a barrel after International Monetary Fund slashed its global growth forecast.

Shares of heavyweight Reliance Industries today fell by 3.76 per cent to close at Rs 1,004.35 despite posting its highest-ever quarterly net profit of Rs 7,290 crore for the three months period ended December.